Kayla's LJay

So, good news, farrier came out and was a lot less concerned about Enrique's rotating feet than I was :P He shifted the angles of the feet a bit, and thinks that should help get things back on track. He wants to see him again in 4 weeks. We are going to try to hold off on shoes for a bit longer and see if this trim work might be enough.

So I need to get riding. A lot. With lots of lunge lessons. Because I need to sit the trot properly. Because I got the Dressage Canada show schedule, and I need to get my act together, so that Enrique and I are somewhat competitive at 1st level!

Here is the list of shows available for me this year:
(any of the bronze shows are schooling shows, the Gold are National/FEI level shows)

March 13-14 Carrots & Cocktails Bronze Show
April 17-18 Carrots & Cocktails Bronze Show
May 1-2 Carrots & Cocktails Bronze Show
May 21-23 Amberlea Dressage Gold Show
June 12-13 CA/ADA Summer Festival Gold Show
June 24-27 CA/ADA National Gold Show
July 15-19 Edmonton Gold Rush Gold Show
July 30-Aug 1 Amberlea Dressage Gold Show
September 16-19 Alberta Provincials/Western Regionals

Obviously I'm not going to do ALL these shows. Because any of the gold shows are about $500-$750 each, by the time everything is done - so definitely not going to be able to do them all. Definitely the 3 schooling shows, because hopefully thats where we test the waters for our 1st level debut. And Costa will be shown training level (assuming I still have the little man). But I need to go to at least 2 Gold shows (probably the two CA/ADA shows, as they are close to my barn) and get 3 scores over 60% to qualify for the Provincials/Regionals.

So I need to devise a plan to get my act together. Sadly, my trainer is going to Florida for 4 months (figures) -after she carries the Olympic Torch on January 20th :P to compete and train down there (up there?) with 3 of her horses, so that leaves me with Costa's trainer. Which actually might not be a bad idea, because she is much more about the rider than just focusing on how the horse is going. She's a very pretty, and correct rider, and well, I've gotten sloppy at some things, so might be nice to have someone yell at me for that for a change :P

But that brings me to my Schedule of Life. Which deserves capitals, because its almost epic :P (and brilliantly organized, if I do say so myself)

Monday;
School from 8-1pm
Work from 1:30-5:30pm
Ride Enrique

Tuesday;
School from 8-12pm
Gym
Lesson on Enrique @ 3pm
(yay slacker day. Probably errand day too)

Wednesday;
School from 8-12pm
Work from 12:30-5:30pm
Ride Costa

Thursday;
Lesson with Costa @ 9am
Ride Enrique
School from 1-5pm
Personal Trainer @ 6pm

Friday;
School from 8-3pm
Ride Enrique
Hang out with friends/social commitments

Saturday;
Work from 8-4:30pm
Gym at lunch

Sunday;
Work from 8-4:30pm
Gym at lunch

So that's not too bad; if I stick to it, I get to the gym 4x a week. I ride Enrique 4x a week, and Costa 2x per week. So not too bad. The trick now is not to burn myself out or exhaust myself, otherwise I do nothing :P

Finally got the videos of my boys free jumping!

Costa:


And here's the grey beast:


So it was an 18" bounce, to a 2'3ft vertical to about 3'3-3'6 oxer :)

Which they are trying to make mandatory for all health care workers.
I decided to ultimately take it now because if there is even a possibility that it can help reduce my getting very ill, I'm willing to take it. I also have a very shitty immune system (good times with mono, bell's palsey and many bronchitis episodes) so anything to help boost it I'm willing to try. Despite my joke on facebook about worrying about my future children having 3 arms, I'm not too concerned about side effects. It's a dead virus that they are injecting, not a live one, so we should be ok on that wavelength.

I have to say though, its been an hour since I got the shot, and my arm hurts like a son of a bitch. Like holy crap does it hurt. They say on the info sheet to expect a sore arm-more so than the regular flu shot, but that's a bit of an understatement. My arm ACHES. Now, I'm always a bit more reactive than normal people (because of the egg present in the vaccine. Wasn't until I was 18 that I could safely take the flu shot because of the way the eggs were cultivated), but its to the point that I am icing it and taking a tylenol.

I am happy though that I'm a health care worker. We (stupidly) only have 5 clinics in Calgary at the moment to vaccinate nearly 1 million people. According to the news, wait times are 6hours + and not expecting to dissipate for another 2 weeks or so. Health care worker? Went to the nearest hospital? 15 minute wait, and I'm done. Yay.

Truly glad I'm not riding today, as I don't think my arm would be up to it. Enrique was fantastic yesterday during my lesson. Were working on lengthenings. She had me do an excercise where you do a half circle at A or C, leg yield to the wall and then ask for a lengthening on the long side. Was hard for us. Enrique isn't as responsive laterally. He has to really think about where his body is going. But towards the end, I could really feel him cross under and then lift his shoulders up during the lengthening so that we weren't falling on the forehand. Finished the lesson by keeping him on a 20 meter circle and jumping over 2 caveletti on the circle, and he was super good.

I'm off to go ice my arm somemore!

Toodles!

Enrique is absolutely certain of that now. Where before there were some doubts in his mind, there's none now. Gremlins in the arena. Evil, ugly gremlins who long to destroy the minds of poor, innocent Trakehners.

First of all, we have a large (think about 12ft) back door in our arena, which allows you to see the hayshed and part of the outside arena. And the doors can either be closed all the way, or you can have a sliding half door over the lower part of the door so that you look out. Generally, unless its winter, the door remains half closed for ventilation and. This has always caused concern for Enrique, because you can see out and things can sometimes pop out at you. (one time visitors came bye and leaned over it just as we were going around the corner. Enrique almost shit himself. And almost dumped me)

So he's cautious of this...in fact, all the horses are, some more, some less. Costa for example, looks at it and won't go close to it until you ride him in bigger circles and get closer and closer until you are right next to it, and then he's generally fine, even with activity happening outside. He seems to realize that its ok-its just the outside and if he does spook, its a small shy and then he carries on. Enrique, on the other hand, can be ridden right up to it from the start and is generally just fine until he sees something...and this something can be something so small as a sparrow, and then he'll try to spin around and bolt like the hounds of hell are after him. Same happens if he sees other horses in the outdoor, he stops dead, spins on his haunches and heads for home...or rather the wall as by that point, I'm swearing at him and telling him to grow the hell up!)


So, we had a lot of snow the past two days. About 3" of the stuff. And today was warmer (yay!) so it was starting to melt. Enrique was being fabulous. Monday was an ok ride, but today he felt really good. We're really starting to get crisp walk to canter transitions instead of the "what? canter? how's about I trot a few steps...no? alright, I'll canter" So we were about 1/2 way into our ride, when we passed the doors....and all this snow fell from the roof right into the arena and right into his path and face with a loud woosh. Well, let me tell you. In Enrique's mind, this was clearly an indication of the Apocalypse. The poor grey beast lost his little Trakehner mind, bolted forward, dislodging me from my stirrups, and almost knocking me out of the saddle, and was so out of it, that I literally was seesawing the bit trying to get him back to me for 5 minutes before I could turn him enough to run him into a wall (and the poor beast actually did run himself into a wall. He's got a cut now on his nose thanks to hitting it on the wood. oy) . He just fried. He was coated in sweat and shaking. So I spent the next twenty minutes of our ride getting him past that Evil Corner. I have to say though, he did feel fantastic despite that; he was so up in front of my leg and sensitive at this point that my littlest half halt was enough to have him sitting back right on his ass. But We Were Not Amused.

Frustrates me though, as I thought we were getting better with this door thing. I mean I know most horses would have shit themselves in these circumstances; but he was always so sensitive about that corner to begin with. Of COURSE it would happen to him. Now he's absolutely convinced that there are gremlins with a penchant for eating big grey Trakehners lurking in the corner.

On Steven and Chris It's really too damn bad that they are gay. How many other men are good looking, intelligent, can cook, are creative and ENJOY housework? Damnit, why the hell are they gay? *sigh* This little project fascinates me, and I am going to attempt putting a print on a pillow and seeing if it works properly, because it could open up a whole new world for me - since my whole decor centers around my photos that I have of family and my animals.

Speaking of my animals, I've been a bad horsemom. I haven't ridden since Wednesday, and yesterday night was the first time I went out; not to ride, mind you, but to pull Costa's mane and run him around. I blame the weather. Welcome to Calgary. Yesterday we had a windchill of -17C (4F). By thursday, it's supposed to be +15C (60F). And they wonder why Calgarians live with constant headaches. Speaking of the weather, I have to attempt to clip both my horses sometime this week. Enrique doesn't have much of a coat, but he gets so sweaty anyways, and Costa resembles a close cousin of the wooly mammoth. So need to get them done!

I am pleased to report that while I have only lost 2lbs in 3 weeks (because I'm such a damn slacker and have yet to put any effort into this) I have lost 1" around my waist and 1" around my hips. Got another 10" to lose around my waist, and 7" around my hips, and 6" around my bust, but its a start! And Im hoping that its a little push into actually getting serious about this shit so that I don't feel like a cow riding a horse ;)

I leave you with a picture of my Little Grey Beastie, Sasha - who is my soul sister and is truly who I want to be when I grow up ;)


To my fellow Canadians out there - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

beybladesabre sent me a couple of photos from the show to appease my mother who was most cranky that I didn't take my own camera up :P